Lunar Orbiter 1
Lunar Orbiter 1 — the first of five NASA/JPL orbiters sent to photograph the Moon for Apollo (launched 10 August 1966). It surveyed candidate landing sites across the near side and, on 23 August 1966, took the first photograph of Earth from the vicinity of the Moon. It was deliberately crashed into the far side that October.
Key facts
Mission & specifications
Mission
- Operator
- NASA / JPL
- Launched
- August 10, 1966
- Status
- Completed
Trajectory
- Distance from the Sun
- 1.01 AU
- Distance from Earth
- 70,527 km
- Distance from Venus
- 0.602 AU
Mission
Lunar Orbiter 1 began the second stage of the pre-Apollo campaign: not a suicide dive like the Rangers, but a patient survey from orbit. NASA needed detailed maps of the whole Moon to choose safe, smooth places for astronauts to land, and five Lunar Orbiters were built to photograph it methodically. Launched on 10 August 1966, Lunar Orbiter 1 entered lunar orbit four days later and began imaging candidate sites across the near side. It also, almost as an aside, made history: on 23 August 1966 it turned to capture the first photograph of Earth from the vicinity of the Moon — our planet as a crescent hanging over the lunar horizon, a view no human had ever seen. When its work was done that October, controllers deliberately crashed it into the far side to clear the space around the Moon for the missions to come.
- 1966MoonOrbiter
First of five orbiters that photographed ~99% of the Moon to choose the Apollo landing sites; it also took the first photograph of Earth from the Moon's vicinity.
Images
Images from open archives · credit shown per image